Editorials

Last Thursday, the Alabama Board of Education voted to prohibit employees of the state’s two-year college system from serving in state-elected offices. Then it softened the blow with a revised flex-time policy that allowed current legislators who fall under this rule to use vacation days to continue serving until 2010. But before the election they must decide if they will resign their two-year system post or not run for re-election.

Take that, you “double-dippers.”

As we have said before, Alabama’s double-dippers largely brought this on themselves. Scandals such as the one endured by the two-year system naturally give rise to calls to end the conditions that made the abuses possible. That is what Chancellor Bradley Byrne and a majority of the school board has done.

But don’t think for one minute that this is simply a matter of putting “an end to the corruption we’ve seen in the two-year college system,” as Gov. Bob Riley a little too gleefully proclaimed. That most of the double-dipping legislators are Democrats and staunch supporters of the Republicans’ nemesis — the Alabama Education Association — is not lost on either side. Ever since double-dipping has been on the GOP agenda the AEA has let it be known that it will challenge anything the school board does to outlaw the practice.

Now it has.

And it might have a pretty good case.

In the first place, AEA can argue that the new policy disproportionately affects African-Americans. If the Justice Department agrees, the new rule may be set aside.

Then there is the constitutional question. Can the school board (or any such agency) deny someone the right to run for office because of the nature of their employment? We have argued that it would be better to tighten the conflict-of-interest regulations, but the school board chose to follow this path instead — a path that likely will lead to litigation.

And then there is the Legislature, where AEA has powerful supporters and where many of the double-dippers have friends and colleagues. Although Byrne says he has found AEA allies who are willing to support the ban, Alabama legislators have a long history of finding ways to look after their own.

So get ready. Between now and the next election, a lot will happen. Careers will be on the line. Special interests will be threatened. Alliances will form and reform. And hard choices will be made.

And, oh, yes, some lawyers will make a lot of money.